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This isn't going to be pretty, so if you want to focus only on the news, feel free to skip this.

I don't usually follow what's happening in the Blogosphere, as I spend a lot of time reading the regular media, but in the past few days the Blogosphere has been in an uproar with accusations and counter-accusations going strong. Apparently it started with Little Green Footballs accusing several right wing groups of being racist and of hitching up their agenda to theanti-Jihadi movement.

I debated whether to jump into the fray. My blog focuses on translating news, not on inter-blog debates, but most important - I'm afraid of the reactions. On the other hand, maybe this is a good reason to speak up.

I do not want to get into the debate about any specific group being "racist". What bothers me more is the idea that bloggers can't speak, or express an opinion, because they stepped on somebody else's feet. Because they expressed a valid fear.

I am afraid of the Islamization of Europe. But I am also, and even more, afraid of the rise of the extreme right. In fact, one of my main fears is that people will get so fed up by the political correctness being shoved down their throats that they'll go from liberalism to the other extreme. As a Jew, I have no illusions - the Muslims might be kicked out first, but the Jews will suffer horribly when that happens.

I had blogged in the past about the anti-mosque protests in Cologne, and what struck me most was an interview with one "ordinary German" : "I'm just afraid of fundamentalist Muslims gaining more and more ground," says one female shop assistant. But it's hardly possible to voice this fear because of the risk of immediately being labeled right-wing, she says.

Indeed. Of course, the Left is using every tactic it can and labeling people Nazi's and racists is one of the simplest. But this does not mean that there is no such thing as neo-Nazis, no such thing as racists and no such thing as extreme right.

Going back to the Cologne protests: neo-Nazi groups are hijacking the protests. All it takes is a couple of skinheads to show up, wave banners and the entire demonstration changes its tone from one of serious concern about Islamizatoin to a racist one.

Can anybody guess which picture was featured on the news and which on the Pro-Cologne site?

Now, why am I writing all this? Because what gets me really upset is hypocrisy. Little Green Footballs named Vlaams Belang and the Sweden Democrats as racist groups. Brussels Journal, in return, accused LGF of being "more PC than thou". But didn't Vlaams Belang/Brussels Journal do exactly the same thing, just less than two months ago?

On September 11th three groups from the UK, Denmark and Germany, organized a demonstration in Brussels against Islamization under the umbrella organization Stop the Islamization of Europe. The demonstration was banned by the mayor of Brussels, and Dr. Ulfkotte, the German organizer, went to court.

Ulfkotte got support from Vlaams Belang, and Brussels Journal followed the story very closely. That is.. until Ulfkotte decided he's had enough. Then he became the enemy. He was accused of planning it all in advance to discredit Vlaams Belang and the demonstration.

Brussels Journal discovered that Ulfkotte had written a book about the French riots where he had brought up the claim that the Mossad was responsible for them. In other words, Brussels Journal accused a fellow anti-Jihadi, an until-recently valued member of the group, of being a paranoid anti-Semitic. (Btw, this piece of info was freely available to Vlaaams Belang in the days when the demonstration was planned and when the court was petitioned. A simple internet search brings it up.)

The claim now floating about Little Green Footballs giving ammunition to CAIR and their ilk are ridiculous. But they're ridiculous most for the underlying premise which is that a right wing blogger can't agree with Muslims. This claim is ridiculous because there are quite a few anti-Muslim groups who agree with Muslims, in their anti-Semitic views. Hitler salutes, kill the jews.. does that sound at all familiar? There are quite a few radical Islamists and right-wingers who would be at home with those sentiments.

Stop the Islamization Denmark (SIOD) had organized a protest in Copenhagen this past Sunday. On their way to the protest the organizers were brutally attacked, apparently not by Muslims but by left-wing radical anarchists. (see here, here and here)

The claim is that this wasn't mentioned in the Danish media, but both the demonstration and the attack were mentioned on the Jyllands Posten, Politiken and DR sites. The identity of the attackers might not have been mentioned, and in that sense the media were remiss.

A right wing extremist group was attacked by left wing extremists in a city which in the past few months had seen hundreds of left wing extremists riot. Hundreds of leftists and anarchists have been battling the police, using tactics that wouldn't have embarrassed any Intifada rioter. And now anti-Jihadi blogs want to know why this specific incident wasn't made into a more serious item. Clashes between right wing and left wing extremists are not that rare and are usuallyveryviolent.

Talking about the "media being remiss" - while the blogging community reported every car torched by Muslims (two more torched last night in Amsterdam, Dutch) they simply ignore and ignored the mass riots in Copenhagen. Of course, blogs dealing with Islam might not be expected to focus on left-wing anarchist riots. The media, of course, does focus on them. Danish media is full of stories about the left-wing anarchists.

I fear Islamization because it is a threat to liberal democracy, just like the radical left and the radical right. Between the different possibilities, it is much more likely that a right-wing extremist group would get to power in Europe than it is that an Islamist group would do the same. The swastika is much more frightening than the crescent because it is much more realistic.

21 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Calling SIOE a right wing group is absolute nonsens. I was in Brussels in september and met quite a few demonstraters who were leftish, anarchists and an occasional communist. Your presumptions are based on prejudice. Take it from me, I was there and you weren't.

I would like to say that I followed the unfolding of this with dismay. Why? Well, Charles at LGF did not immediately jump the gun. He stated that the individuals needed some further investigation. It would be tragic to trade one tyrant for another would it not? Does it not make sense to check this out?

Are you kidding me? Birthrates alone make the crescent much more threatening. But you don't seem to take seriously enough that the swastika and the crescent will form a natural alliance. It's certainly not an either/or proposition.

Post #5 mentioned an alliance between the swastika and the crescent. A true student of history will realize that this was already a reality back during WWII. What is perhaps even scarier -- at least to me -- is the fact that we are also seeing alliances springing up between the sickle and the crescent... Russia/Iran/China/Venezuela/Syria... etc... etc... It's not just a threat to Europe we are dealing with but truly a world-wide threat of Communists/Socialist/Liberals combining forces with the Islamofascists that truly concerns me. I truly believe that they see a convenient alliance would be able to bring down democratic Western cultures (and then each thinks they could overrun the other in the end). It's time for the world to wake up, IMHO. A scary time we are living in for sure...

I agree on most of the points - the Nazis are in many countries gaining ground.

Actually the points that is made here is nothing compared to the things gound on in Sweden rigth now - Sweden is, in my eyes, either going to be islamofasist or nazi in a very few years.

In Sweden they have this marches called Salem marches - huge nazi marches, protesting muslims.

Then just a little correction on the SIOE stance. I am a part of it, and believe me, we are very much against nazis, and pro democracy. One of the reasons why I joined the organization was actually to create a sensible alternative to the nazi movement - and it has succeded, there are almost no nazis in Denmark.

It is tough work, but there has to be an alternative to the nazis, that normal people can relate to, otherwise the nazis will gain ground.

And i suppose, that is exactly who SIOE and SIAD is so popular, because it is the resistance, with at positive end goal; democracy.

I gave a presentation some while ago about the influence of Islam on the Third Reich and during the question time at the end, I was asked by some old guy if I thought that the National Socialists would take power again in Germany (Apparently he asks the same question at every opportunity). I looked at him and said the next flag to fly over the Reichstag would be the crescent moon.

The blokes parading around in their uniforms and swastickas will not progress - nobody will fall for that, although they may recruit some people they will never make any significant headway electorally.

It is why we should be out there representing the peoples concerns. If we can present a moderate voice it will give people a valid choice.

yggdrasilThe reason there are more nazis in Sweden than Denmark or anywhere else for that matter, really, goes back to WW2. Their royal family was close to the nazis, their industry was close to the nazis, and a large percentage of the poplulation were nazis. Up to this day, there are still a lot more nazis in Sweden than in Denmark or Norway. This is not meant as slander, it's just simple facts.This is why both state-mandated and media-driven political correctness is so much more prevalent in Sweden compared to other scandinavian countries. There's simply a very good reason for why the swedes are doing it, even though you could argue this form of "soft censorship" only makes things worse in the long run.That parties like Sweden Democrats get elected to

I wonder if our tendencies toward extremism here in Europe are affected by multi-party parliamentary politics. The European voter can usually find a party that closely mirrors his political views, and can vote for greens, trotskyists, social democrats, christian democrats, etc. and still have a reasonable chance of being represented in parliament.

After elections, it is up to political leaders to reconcile and accommodate different viewpoints and opinions. The European voter never has to do this.

Contrast this with the winner-takes-all two party system in the US. American voters that can't really use their right to vote in any meaningful way without settling for one of the two major parties. Thus people get used to the idea of having to coexist and work with people with different worldviews and opinions under the same banner, and extremists that can't do this are rendered irrelevant.

I know the nazi tradition of Sweden, but what i am concerned about is the development of the resistance movement. Sweden is developing into a full nazi state, because the nazis are the only one people can attach themselves too when they are fed up with the muslims.

This is not the case in Denmark, where SIAD/SIOE is a serious alternative. So the nazifization af Sweden is well under way, and Denmark is strengtened in its democratis resolve.

This is my point, we have to create an alternative to the Nazis based on democracy and the philosophical heritage of Europe, in order to take the steam out of the nazi movement.

Sorry to turn everything over on its head....but as a participant to the conference, I can attest to the speeches and the personal assurances given, that all concerned are on the same page.

More than anything else, good deeds outweigh any spoken promises, and with both of the political parties in question, being ravaged by the two sides, (the Left/hard Left and the conservatives) for its odious past, and then from the loony neo-fascists for giving them a stiff arm, I can only say that further positive signs from the two parties will go a long way in their rehabilitation.

I for one believe that the hard questions should be asked, and credible answers expected. That the VB and the SD are some of the most Judeophile political parties in their areas, says more about them then the other parties around them.

Let's put some ice in the hat, and let cooler perspectives prevail. But once again, criticism is a good thing, but also good deeds.

I don't get it. You know that the nazi's, the extreme socialists, and islam are allied (literally, the military treaty between them is still valid, either side could have cancelled it with a minimum of fuss, neither side wanted to do it).

They are allied ideologically, militarily, economically ...

The sad, basic truth is simple : the economy runs on maybe 10-15% of the people. The rest, kids, pensioners, women (still not represented too well in the labor force, all government employees obviously don't count as contributing to the economy, ...)

All the rest of them gets paid for doing nothing ! Nothing ! We're talking 80% of the european population here.

The sad truth is, easily 50% of the population could be killed one night, and nobody would notice he next morning.

Obviously they become extremist socialists. They don't want to lose their free money. Would you ?

Anything that even vaguely hints of threatening their free money is called nazi. It is for anybody to see that just about any party and group that's been called nazi isn't.

Perhaps this wasn't true 20 years ago, but it is today. You cannot allie with a true liberal that's not been called a nazi, simply because there aren't any !

Yes, the vlaams belang used to be a nazi party. To claim that it is working towards reintroducing nazism today is beyond ridiculous. The parties in Belgium that are closer to introducing nazism are the same parties that tried to do it in 1930, and just like then, they are succeeding. They are the S-PA, pvda and PS.

Vlaams belang is certainly not an "ideologically pure" ally. But it is an ally. They are not the party nazi's vote for.

Sure we should fear all anti-liberal forces. Although these ‘right-wing extremist’ who are caricatures of the National Socialist party and are anti liberal, they are hardly the only ones. You could say old Europe is on the rise again. The socialist ideas from Germany have never been more powerful in Europe than today. But it’s not the fringe rightwing groups that bring them. It’s the political main stream that adheres to it. It’s so wide spread that many of the current political parties operate on socialist ideas but don’t even call them selves socialist.

The totalitarian socialist ideas are so dominant that it’s hardly a point of discussion. If this does not stop and we continue that socialist road it will indeed lead to the total destruction of our liberal societies. The collapse does not come from one political party who can take over, it will just be the logical outcome of illiberal policies. And will then continue without democracy that make it so hard to adhere to the socialist principles.

Thus the ‘extreme right’, just faction of the socialist family, is not an especially dangerous one. They are tiny compared to the large socialist family that is now part of mainstream politics in Europe. The extreme left on the other hand is larger and better organized. They are firmly embedded in the power structures and are financed by the current socialist states. They are the protectors of the socialist status quo and defend it violently.

Sure I also have my questions with Vlaamsbelang. But it the current anti liberal climate they don’t seem worse that the other parties who hide their anti-Semitism under qualifications like ‘legal criticism on Israel’.

"Post #5 mentioned an alliance between the swastika and the crescent. A true student of history will realize that this was already a reality back during WWII."

Read this:

"Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers-already, you see, the world had already fallen intothe hands of the Jews, so gutless a thingChristianity! -then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so."

I can't agree with Yggdrasil about the description of what goes on in Sweden. The nazis are maybe 3 000. They have been about as many for many years, no change really. Slightly less violance during the demonstrations. Not as many spectacular chrimes as during the 90ties (when they comitted several murders). But basically no change in the amount of activists.

Sweden Democrats is growing and might eventually be in the parliament after the election 2010. But they can in no way be described as nazis, they are nowadays rather like Danish Peoples Party (or maybe Vlaams Belang). Xenophobic but supporting the democratic system, not even totally against all migrants.

When it comes to critizising left wing activist I more or less agree. I wouldn't say they are just as bad, it would be to exaggerate it. But it's pretty obvious that even left wing anarchists have no understanding and respect for democratic and liberal values and freedom of expression. I would say not even these groups tends to get more activist, it's more or less the same.

Esther--many thanks and accolades for keeping your head during this mess. I noticed your comment at Gates of Vienna and couldn't help but refer people to it in my comments.

I have all but stopped blogging, but seeing that this internecine fight was beginning to drag Pim Fortuyn's name through the mud was too much for me, and I had to comment, at the very least at the behest of pimfortuyn.com. What has been done with Pim on MySpace is egregious as well, with now two sites devoted to him, both racist gathering points.

I am in full agreement that the white supremacists are trying and succeeding in latching themselves onto a movement against the wahhabist Muslim expansion that is currently still being countered by secularists/supporters of freedoms for all, not those with simply a far-right agenda. Some of these people include as well Muslims who seek to escape the anti-secularist home countries they leave.

I am positive of what you say, that many would use the work of counter-jihadists who are Jewish and of other ethnic backgrounds as a means to their ends, but that we will be the first to go if their way is gotten.

Regardless, thank you for staying on message and sane in an increasingly radical era of this subject matter.